A Shade of Ash # 39 – A Dory of Our Life

Which dory are you taking?

That one over there. It brings me back to see my Pop. We beachcomb for hours and he teaches me how to tie knots. I watch him gut fish and blow snot from his nose in the cold months. I hear him saw wood for the stove that my nan helps me pick up, and stack high against the fence. I watch him as he goes crazy when wrestling comes on. I love every minute of every match.

I teach him to find a good show on TV, but he still wants me to fix the remote because it won’t “click” to another channel. I thank him for the cool bottle of aftershave, and that belt he’d never wears like he knew I liked it. I listen to him and his best friend, Wilson for no good reason at all. They are so close and I am hanging on every word. I laugh at him as the bottle-stuck-on-head trick breaks out. It is his specialty. I follow his expert guidance through the woods. It’s a Saturday morning, we’re trouting. I draw with him on a lazy Sunday afternoon and a duck comes to life on a page. I talk to him in a language all of our own. No one has listened to me more. I cry with him when we say goodbye…like we used to.

But, that’s the dory I’m taking.
That one…right there.